Revolutionary
by Honored-loa-meme
Summary: Aizen Sosuke died at the hands of a 15 year old substitute soul reaper, only to be revived by a being interested in making his life some terrible game. Who would have thought the Hogyoku was this...playful. (Slightly AU)(Inspired by Game of The Year Fanfics) (Another update coming this week.)
1. Chapter 1: New Game

I wish I owned Bleach, but I don't. The owner is Tite Kubo.

* * *

There is but one law that rules' the Rukongai 'Bad Lands', just one; _survival_. You've lived by it since you were old enough to make a fist, strong enough to fight, and cold enough to kill. And it is the same law that compelled you to join the ranks of the Rukongai militia in defense of the borderlands of soul society. Bound by your duty, you find yourself and 15 other militia members marching through the 'Bad Lands' on a moonless night, wading through thick blades of grass upon dozens of small hills as an absurdly strong fog tries to obscure your sight. The only thing lighting your path, besides the lantern –holding officer in the front, seemed to be the numerous lanterns randomly dropped across the fields. You mused that it would probably have been a fairly pleasant trek if you and your comrades weren't dealing with a hollow rampage. Of course, a female voice stopped any further rumination on your part as the company march gradually came to a halt.

"Company, we will soon be upon the hollows within 100 meters," said the leading officer, a shinigami. The officer in question appeared to be middle aged, somewhere around her 40s physically, yet she seemed seasoned all the same. As far as having any unique identifiers, above –average height, the long dark- brown braided ponytail stretching down her back and the small scar on her left eyebrow immediately stood out. This woman was definitely from one of the outer Rukongai districts'.

After circling about the company, inspecting each and every member's piece of armor, spear, and shield with an impressively intimidating glance, she quickly paced over to a raised bed of grass a few paces to her right at the base of a small hill. Taking care to move the elevated bed of grass to the side and pulling out an overly large supply crate, the leading officer motioned for the squad to move in closer.

Reaching into the crate with both hands, the officer pulled out what appeared to be a bundle of white tipped arrows and pieces of small grey colored fabric. After glancing back to the apprehensive faces surrounding her, she calmly handed out both of the items she retrieved in numbers of 10 to each militia member. Without a pause, the officer in question returned to her location near the crate, hiding it as it once was before her retrieval. Standing in an elevated position on top of the raised grass bed, she peered at the now-at least to you- more competently equipped men and women, ready for further instructions.

"We," she gestured to the militia, "will approach the hollows in silence from this point forward using this."The officer reached down to take hold of a female militia member's arrow and piece of cloth, raising them up so all could see. "You'll be placing the pieces of cloth I gave you into the gaps of your armor to lessen the noise. There's no need for any unnecessary sounds to give away our approach," She said, before gently tossing the cloth in her hand to the officer who generously assisted her.

Next, the officer showed off the curious looking arrow, gracefully twirling it with her fingers. "And this is how we'll take them out. You're going to be using these arrows to distract the hollows, nothing more. You will fire at them and retreat on my signal. _**I**_ will be the one to purify them." She said, with a look that invited no argument. "I will direct you further before we engage the enemy. There won't be much for you to think about, just make sure you my follow my orders. Is that Understood? " She finished, while glancing around for a response she was sure didn't exist. "Good, let's move out." she barked out, handing back the arrow and taking the lead once again.

As menacing as the officer was, you couldn't help but feel somewhat more secure taking on a handful of hollows under her watch. Although, you had to wonder, did you really have the nerve to stand up to multiple hollows? You could tell that you weren't the only one present with a below average reiryoku level, especially for a Rukongai soul, but doubt over your strength still lingered regardless of how infectious her confidence was.

A few years of practice surviving the 80th district made sure any tip, tool, or technique you came across maximized the efficiency of the small spiritual energy you had within. It was one of the greatest sources of pride you had in yourself. Immobilizing or baiting hollows by using some arrows here or there was entirely different though…The only consolation you had was the avoidance of close combat, but you had the feeling that something about the pursuit wasn't quite right. Who knew, maybe you'd get to use this rusty spear or die trying.

The thought brought forth a small smile to your face. Just who exactly would remember a small, dirty, street urchin dying in the line of duty anyway? Would they remember that boy had sacrificed himself for his comrades? Or would you perish like thousands of others before you, just another number in a long list of the dead? It was a sobering thought, yet nothing as unpleasant as the scene before your eyes.

Off into the distance was what could only be described as a nightmare. The number of hollows was not as few as you had originally assumed, but appeared to be at least a pack of a dozen.

With a fluid motion, the shinigami unsheathed her blade to the world, ready for battle. She motioned for the company to follow her with a small nod of her head as she descended into a small path leading to a burning village filled with screaming souls and roaring hollows.

This was where your determination would be tested. Where you would know whether or not your first hollow hunt would earn you some respect or an early grave. Where you would make the hollows bend to your reality or at least make sure they suffered. This was your chance to save souls and ensnare your enemies in a bloody dream: untouchable like the moon on the surface of water.

Indeed, on this night, a young street urchin from the southern 80th Rukongai district by the name of Sosuke would take the first steps toward his legacy in Soul Society: The savior of Aizen village.

* * *

Hello everyone. This is my first attempt at writing a fan-fiction piece.I thought the Bleach universe was just too good to pass up,so here we are. I plan on adding a few surprise elements to the story to give it a unique touch. Hope you like it. Please feel free to read, review, criticize, or comment about it. I'll be very open to any suggestions and improvements I can make in my writing.I should have chapter up early next week,so until then, ciao.


	2. Chapter 2: Tutorial

_Disclaimer_: I wish I owned Bleach, too bad I don't. The owner is Tite Kubo.

* * *

A potent concentration of copper was the first thing to fill your nose as you came face to face with a fiery scene of death and destruction. It was utter chaos as the company carefully entered the dying village of Aizen. As the members cautiously passed through the village, the militia members came upon dozens and dozens of lifeless faces frozen in terror, and did their best not to disturb the bodies. Strangely, it was readily apparent that they had perished without any visible injuries, a passing from what was most likely fright driven: death by reiatsu. Within the fields of Rukongai, the villagers must have been more reiryoku sensitive in order to survive so long outside of the districts, but it seemed this ability eventually back fired on many of them in the end. You yourself noticed that upon closer inspection, that aside from the untouched deceased, the hollows which were the only other beings visible before entering the village were nowhere to be found after the militia entered. The thought troubled you as the officer lead the militia deeper inside to investigate.

Proceeding deeper into the village brought the militia before fewer bodies and less destruction; contrary to what you would have thought would have increased the further in you ventured. Even the houses that were untouched by the flames were completely intact, except for some of the doors, which were all opened or broken down. It was unsettling for the center of the village to not be as disturbed as the entrance, a thought your comrades voiced in their increasingly agitated footsteps. What made things worse was the fact that the flames that had been seen raging from a distance before entering were steadily being snuffed out as the volume of smoke in the air gradually lessened. Something here wasn't rig –

_**Ding-ding **_

'**Tutorial Mission Start'**

Quickly peering around, paranoia and confusion gripped you as words, accompanied by a short jingle, popped into existence before your face with an odd declaration. What mission? It seemed that none of your peers had noticed your momentary bout with insanity either, still...Were you going crazy?

"Halt!" said the shinigami officer, as she held out her free hand to signal an immediate stop. She slowly turned towards the militia members with eyes that slowly narrowed. Her sword was now pointed towards the sky, grasped in two hands as her stance screamed that battle would come very soon. A short yet unintelligible chant came forth from her lips as her sword slowly came down .Looking towards the militia members, a small smile formed on the corners of her mouth before she proceeded.

"I believe the hollows have gone deeper into the village. I can't sense any in the immediate area. Before we go any deeper into the village I think now would be a good time to check on your shields. Form up in rows of four."She barked out as she peered over the militia members with a mischievous smirk as they coalesced into formation.

"I want you all on the right to take your shields and hold them up straight; I need to check them properly."She said as she slowly prodded, tapped and gave a once over to each of the shields, whispering a short response for each person before stopping before you; the last member on the right side. After coming to you, the officer performed the usual check on your shield, but not before whispering a message in your ear, "Use the shields on the right to hide yourself and follow me up front. When I shout 'now' stab your spear forward."Her smirk became somewhat deeper as she returned to the front.

You blinked at the information before quickly steeling yourself for the task at hand.

After crouching forward using your comrades' shields as a four foot tall wall on your right, you followed after the shinigami, proceeding under cover until you stopped to the left of the first militia member in the right corner. You patiently waited for the officer to give the signal right away, wondering to yourself if there was a hollow she noticed that was lurking nearby. A sense of vindication struck you as you notice the air around the shinigami thickened by the second as your breath became heavier and more laborious. She was about to make her move, whatever it was.

With an exaggerated stretch the shinigami officer bended backwards with her eyes shut to the world. Her arms stood outstretched to the sky, her sword sheathed after giving her message to you. She then bended forward, holding the position for an almost inappropriate length of time, offering herself up in a very vulnerable position to any would be attacker. The presence lurking in the area must have heartily agreed as well if the large form that quickly pounced upon the shinigami was anything to go by.

_**BAM!**_

Quickly shifting herself up, the officer stepped into a backwards dodge-blurred movement to your eyes- shifting out of the way of the crushing blow with ease. Before the hollow could recover from the overcommitted attack, the shinigami caught your eyes and growled out the one word you'd waited for, "Now!". Stepping back to into a more defensive stance, the shinigami drew her blade once again, reiatsu spiking up with a mildly malicious flare.

Thrusting your spear forward, you aimed for the muscular neck of the beast as it, hoping you'd at least leave a scratch. And your hope is answered. Your doubts quickly crumble as your spear not only pierced the beast, but stabbed much deeper than you thought yourself capable of delivering.

It still wasn't enough.

Attention forcibly torn away from the delicious snack before its eyes, the hollow glanced sideways at the food that dared to prick at it from behind. Annoyed at the distraction, the hollow swiftly ripped the spear out and the boy holding it with ridiculous ease, preparing to use the boy as projectile on the shinigami.

It never got the chance.

With a hand covered in blue reiatsu, the officer shot her palm forward into the sternum of the hollow as you desperately clung to your weapon. The creature jolted from the sudden blow before falling forward onto its knees with little more than a wet gurgle. Its weakened grip allowed you to quickly yank your spear back and dart back away from the beast as it fell, face buried into the dirt road.

Looking back at your commanding officer with nothing but gratitude, you simply dismiss that she had the same devious smirk she had from earlier. She saved your life. And as frightened as you were, brilliant was the only way to describe her deception. You really couldn't help the rising excitement you felt at what else she could have up her sleeves. Your panic almost completely disappeared after the creature took hold of the spear as the shinigami inspected the weakened hollow.

She quickly gave you a nod of the head in approval before squatting down to meet the eyes of the hollow. She placed both of her hands on the hollows mask before lifting its' head slightly up, gently saying, "Are you ready to talk yet?" A low growl rung out in contempt as the shinigami lifted the beast higher. In response, she gave out a light chuckle-slightly disturbing, but hopefully just as off-putting for the hollow. She then lowered her head further with a simple remark, "Good."

You had the feeling that whatever watched over souls besides shinigami, this hollow needed to curry a speck of that divine favor very soon. And you did not want it any other way.


	3. Chapter 3: Tutorial part 2

_Disclaimer_: I wish I owned Bleach, but I don't. The owner is Tite Kubo.

* * *

Screams, stubborn grunts of pain, weeping, or anything really would have been preferable to _this_.

A few hundred country bumpkin souls prostrated before you should have been mouth watering to any sane hollow. Unfortunately for you, the brains of this little feast, things were not turning out as exactly as you'd hoped, still, only dunce hollows proposed 'perfect' plans. There was an upside to your little problem though, you knew it, and it was on the tip of your tongue, but first…

"Ugh!"gasped a kneeling, black haired, middle aged man, collapsing into the arms of what looked like his small family. There were two dark haired females, one young and the other old, both frightfully avoided your gaze, yet still held defiant frowns on their faces. Without their patriarch's reiryoku to bolster their souls from your finely controlled reiatsu, they'd join him in the realm of slumber fairly soon as well. Two glistening foreheads indicated that they were nearly at the breaking point, just a little more- there! Soundlessly, the women collapse, just like the struggler before them, maybe with a little more grace, but unconscious all the same. You took a small glance around after knocking out the little family.

Unlike the random 'warriors' you had recruited for the meals gathered here, only you alone could handle this delicate work. It required a special touch to squeeze 'blanks souls' hard enough to knock them out, but controlled enough not to crush them. And, there was always an annoyingly large chunk of reiryoku that seemed to bleed away fast after the souls died of panic or excessive injuries. Their bodies also tended to gain a bitter after taste too, which would be too hard on your palette. Your associates probably wouldn't have noticed or cared, but they were barely out of their feral stage-what could you expect?

Gazing over at your handy work, you noted that the villagers were nearly all knocked out, guaranteeing your associates wouldn't rip each other to pieces or cut into the gathered food because of a lack of impulse control. You'd tried to be as fair as possible.

They had all been lured into feeding on the outskirts of the Soul Society for food where you promised there was a large amount of souls available for everyone. Had you not been present, not one of them could have held their selfish instincts back to cooperate for a feast as large as this. Of course, you should have known that actually feasting upon your hard earned meals would've invited the first of many setbacks.

As far as sheer hardiness was concerned, you'd never met a more resilient or stubborn group of 'Blanks' in all your travels. It came as quite a shock to you when one of your recruits growled at his slightly chipped, cracked teeth, having tried to swallow a struggling female. Being the tiny woman that she was, it seemed ridiculous that her thrashing feet and wailing arms contained enough reiryoku to fool and injure unobservant hollows. To your dismay, it was not exclusive to her either as the entire village was filled with others just like her.

In the end, you were forced to subjugate too many of them for your taste, even if you succeeded in shattering the defense of the over whelming majority of resistance. Finally relieved at taking the villagers down a peg, your reprieve fell all too soon as you felt an even larger nuisance at the edge of your senses.

Damn it.

If there was one thing that you didn't want to deal with besides these base hollows or difficult 'blanks', it was a reaper. They always had a nasty habit of popping up in places where they were least wanted –like now.

After digesting this nasty new revelation, you called out to the nearest hollow, eager to deal with this new problem as quickly as possible, "What happened to the lookout? He was suppose to signal for any-"

_**BAM!**_

The question died as soon as you heard a crash in the distance coming from the direction of the village. To make things worse, the reiatsu of both reaper and hollow spiked up, indicating that the both of them had definitely met each other and an altercation was taking place. Establishing some order before devouring the shinigami would've been the first thing you impressed on your fellows were it not for the simple fact that many of them were caught between fleeing and eating.

An irrational fear always took over many of the young hollows who had survived only on rumors of the reapers. It had a bad habit of causing their confidence to fizzle out. The irrational fear could be corrected; you'd dealt with it before. What you couldn't quite deal with was the other primary emotion mixed with that fear: fascination. Trying to lead some newborns into battle with the two most unstable, conflicting emotions most liable to get them all vanquished was suicide. You probably should have told them this too or made sure they knew they were dealing with a very tricky opponent, but some idiot said just the right thing to get most of the others to bounce back.

The largest hollow you had recruited looked up into air with confusion.

"The lookout's not dead yet?" it slowly said in a baritone voice.

The others hadn't even bothered to look to you for council, especially with the unconscious reiatsu that you gave off, constantly blurring your features and slightly distorting your voice to weaker hollows. Indeed, they looked to each other instead as they fed on their fear and hunger to rationalize going after their partner and the reaper. No need to listen to a wise voice when you could arrogantly blunder about with your peers. They weren't thinking clearly at all, any fool could see that, even if some of the sharper hollows' picked up the reapers fluctuating energy. They knew they could definitely rip the reaper apart. You even picked out one of them mentioning an ambush as the ideal move.

It still wouldn't work.

To go further, this was obviously headed for disaster. You could probably have told them that the fact that the hollow's reiatsu was stable, yet slightly diminished and that the reaper's reiatsu was fluctuating up and down, yet also not diminishing was because it was all a simple ruse. The reaper hadn't advanced yet, which meant she was holding her position within the village where she could take advantage of the tight spaces and corners, using them as choke points. The reaper was luring them into village for ambush, a thought they hadn't even conceived of yet.

What you had to decide however was if they were better off killing themselves as your distractions, or would you help give the reaper some hell too?-Ah,decisions, decisions…

It was in this moment that an idea coalesced in your mind as you found an opportunity to profit off the destruction that was to come. You'd simply make the coming confrontation between your group and the reaper as costly as possible to all the souls. You were fairly sure reaper had some backup lying about, so the attack would have to go off with a little more cunning than some of your pack members were capable of, but oh well. This was definitely the upside you were looking for after the earlier setbacks.

With a plan in mind, you tensed your body, letting your reiryoku rush through your veins to get the attention of the overly eager and rambling members. They in turn were immediately silenced by the thicker reiatsu pressing down on them. Looking upon the seven attentive faces, you began to stalk forward closer to them.

"I know you noticed the shinigami," you casually mentioned, your tone took on a slightly bored tone as you addressed them. "I'm not really interested eating it, but I'll help you out…"

You took each of their unquestioning faces as a sign to continue, continuing to utter your words with disinterest.

"Alright, this is how you want it to go down…"


	4. Chapter 4: Tutorial part 3

_Disclaimer_: I wish I owned Bleach, but I don't. The owner is Tite Kubo.

* * *

What you found out from the shinigami's interrogation of the hollow was more than interesting; it answered many of your questions while producing more. You had thought that they would be little more than dumb beasts, hardly unfamiliar to simple grunts or phrases, but this one was different.

Having recovered with your earlier engagement with the beast, you plopped yourself down to listen to the conversation, but it was an exercise in frustration as the voice of the shinigami came out in lower distorted tones as she poked and prodded the hollow with her reiatsu. It put up as much of a fight as it could after taking the shinigami's paralyzing blow, so it flared some of its' own reiatsu to offset the pressure it was under, but eventually the hollow cracked .

You were only able to pick out maybe half of the conversation after the hollow finally decided to talk, which was better than some of the other members were able to get listening in, but it was more than enough to realize what was really going on.

They'd come forth from the woods in the area and brought down their reiatsu on the unsuspecting villagers. Apparently, there was a leader among them who had used the reiatsu induced deaths from their arrival as leverage in order to force the villagers to abandon their homes before he marched them into the woods. They would find about eleven more of them in the back of the village, probably fighting over dividing up the spoils, if they ventured deeper. It chuckled at the last bit, while drool escaped from its' mouth, probably imagining a bloody scene only hollows would find appealing.

The hollow in question had stayed behind as a lookout after invading the village, but it seemed that his hunger got the best of him when the shinigami appeared. Either way, it looked like the company would have to move quickly before the hollows got over whatever little dispute they were having and turned their attention towards the Aizen villagers. The officer seemed to have also come to the same conclusion as she knocked the hollow out and walked over to the on looking militia members lounging about.

She appeared before the company with a satisfied gleam in her eye.

"Our enemy has revealed itself in failed ambush. I was able draw out the location of where the rest of its allies are currently located,"

The tension seen on some of the faces of your allies eased as the idea of walking into an ambush was discarded. The shinigami further strengthened the resolve of your comrades after noticing their much more confidant faces.

"They failed to ambush us, and well turn this opportunity right back on them. We're going to lure them all in a trap of our own,"She said, with the same smirk from earlier forming.

A female militia member to your right spoke up, with a confused tone.

" Um, how do we lure them into the trap?" she said, her voice held steady as the shinigami gave her undivided attention.

"Don't worry about it; some of them are on their way here. I just need you all to get to the roofs surrounding us as fast as possible." she said, watching with an unimpressed glance as all the militia members snapped up with great urgency after becoming much too lax watching the interrogation.

You yourself hurried to get your gear in proper order, before you felt a hand on your shoulder. You turned around, slightly shocked at discovering you were looking upon the face of the shinigami officer.

"You did good back that there. Did you know you managed to injure the hollow's throat? I would've stopped it from calling on backup myself, but good work," She teased.

"Thank you, Officer." you said, slightly reddening at the praise.

"Don't mention it. I saw that you handled yourself pretty well. In fact, I think you can handle doing a separate assignment for me,"she said.

She continued to carry on the conversation as her tone shifted as low as possible so that only the two of you heard. You listened in silent curiosity as the shinigami began to tell you of your separate mission; a plan that was daring and dangerous, but still unarguably ingenious.

She turned directly to you, asking the question you'd been waiting to hear.

"Are you up to it?" she asked, silently waiting without an ounce of judgment leaking into her voice as she noted your widened eyes.

Before you could even think about giving her an answer, a blue haze quickly clouded your vision. You tried to wipe your eyes, futilely looking to rid yourself of the hallucination before you. You gave up and took in the newly sea-blue tinted world that seemed to be completely silenced. Everything was frozen in place , even sound it seemed. You quickly started to panic before you noticed you were looking at the scene in front of you at an elevated position.

Quickly looking down, you noticed that somehow you had left your body behind, staring into the face of the shinigami. Confusion overtook your panic as you tried to think of a solution for your predicament until once again, you experienced the sound from earlier.

_**Ding -Ding !**_

_**Optional Mission Available:: **_

_**Side-Quest: Family Rescue **_

_**Do you accept the 'Side Quest: Family Rescue'?**_

_**YES/NO **_

You floated down next to your body as words appeared in front of your face out of thin air once again. You had no idea if you were losing your mind, but saw that not a single militia member was moving, so it couldn't have been all in your head. Glancing back to the words in front of you, you decided that instead of touching one of the two options presented, looking for some sign of help on how to proceed would be the best course of action. You waited for a few seconds before another sound went off.

You looked about for more words to appear before being struck by a strong urge to sleep. As you slowly started to lose the fight to stay awake, you saw a small, bright ball of light appear. You weren't completely sure you were safe, but it felt strangely familiar.

Before losing consciousness, you were able to make out a confidant sounding female voice call out to you.

"We meet again, old friend,"it said, before you finally lost the battle with slumber and you knew no more. Your last thought was centered on the one word that had kept you alive this long. You mentally chanted 'survive' right up until you fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

Unaware of the world around him, Sosuke gently floated in silence.

Still floating in mid air, the small ball of light moved over to the floating disembodied body of Sosuke, moving over the his body before stopping at his head.

"Now, how will I play this?"a female voice whispered, drawing closer to his forehead.

The ball of light flickered quickly, synchronizing with Sosuke's breath as it slowly descended down to make contact with his forehead.

This meeting between the ball of light and Sosuke stank of too much mysteries, but what was certain was that the air shifted with the amused laughter of that unseen female voice.

What mischief this entity was up to was something only time would reveal, which for all involved, would hopefully come in great haste.

* * *

Hope you like the update. I'm planning on going slow with the introduction of the game mechanics that Sosuke 's going to see.I want to make sure there's some good world building going on before I put in the meta-gaming aspects in. Also, if it isn't quite clear, this world is going to be based off canon, but its' going to be a lot more darker real soon.

Enjoy.


	5. Chapter 5: Tutorial part 4

_Disclaimer_: I wish I owned Bleach, but I don't. The owner is Tite Kubo.

* * *

Gently floating above your frozen body, you awoke to a world still stained in infinite shades of blue. Your consciousness slowly returned to normal as you righted yourself up from the horizontal position you'd been resting in. You rubbed your right temple, head still throbbing at the headache that over took you earlier. After sliding your hand from your temple, you noticed a smooth object was touching your forehead. Without thinking, you reached up and grasped at the object, only to remove a small, glossy orb, slowly pulsing on and off with a white light. As you peered down at the glowing orb, you were jolted fully awake as the female voice called out to you again.

"Feeling better?"

"Who's there?!" You shouted, frantically shifting about to find the owner of the voice. Turning around and glancing above and below, you came to the conclusion that the voice was hidden out of sight. Pausing in confusion, you realized that somehow it had been able to speak to you as if it was right next you.

"That's right, I am." Said the voice, this time coming from a source much closer to your body.

Looking over your shoulder, you turned your gaze upon the small orb you had plucked from the top of your forehead, now floating a few feet above you. Adjusting your form correctly, you drifted upwards slowly, placing yourself in a better position to bravely address the unknown entity.

"Uh, hello?" You said, immediately unsure of yourself. Maybe you truly were going insane-honestly! Addressing a small ball as if it would reply.

"No, you're not losing your mind." The voice called out, ultimately confirming that it was indeed inside of the small orb.

Jolted by the sound of the voice, you chuckled at yourself mentally for displaying this much weakness. Calming your nerves, you strengthen resolve to get answers from this being. Whether it had the power to crush you or if was responsible for the change that surrounded you mattered not. You would have to take a chance and dare to ask the being, death or no.

"I see. Thank you. That's good to know." you returned, with the niggling feeling that you had just forgotten something very important. Covering for your unease, you immediately tried to introduce yourself as politely as could, but the orb beat you to it.

"Not a problem, Sosuke." said the orb.

"Oh, okay, still I'd like to–wait, how…?" You said, coming to the realization that the relief of not being insane was replaced by wonder and fear. This…thing had just seen your thoughts. It knew your name. The creeping despair you felt slowly caused you to descend towards the ground.

The world had stopped, people stood frozen in motion and you could see your own body off to the side alongside them.

You must have died again.

Or maybe you were going to be reborn in the flesh? Was this where souls were prepared to be sent to the base world?

Glancing around the nonsense world around you, you came to the conclusion that this was the only thing that could explain your entire predicament. Your head must have suffered from an internally injury when that hollow had tried to chuck you. The wound must have been aggravated and took you unaware in the end. And now, you stood before a mind reading orb, moments away from rebirth.

Your head tilted to the side as you digested the irony of being sent forth by a shinigami into an unknown mission only to die moments later as this _thing_, which, to you-Kami help you, could only be the shinigami of shinigami, sent to push you off into the unknown as well. Unfortunately for you, the possibility of even learning about the circumstances behind your departure to the base world seemed to be null. Or, maybe that orb had more things to say…

You looked up at the orb, watching it circle around you overhead until it spoke once more.

"This is new. It's so nice to see you being introspective for a change." The orb said, blinking slowly as it continued to circle you.

Amusement in the pain of lower beings was one of the few things all the mythical Rukongai spirits had in common, so it didn't surprise you tremendously when the being addressed you.

Still…

"Don't look so depressed, Sosuke. You're not ready for the lower world yet. We have too many things to do before your reincarnation or ascension, which ever." The voice of the orb said, still orbiting your head.

The casual ease with which it mentioned you're not-to-be-rebirth caused much of your attention to slip, but not before hearing the word 'We'. Confusion shined through your eyes as you looked to the orb for clarification. It spoke once again, continuing in that nonchalant tone it had assumed.

"Yes. I meant 'we'. Your memories still haven't returned yet, so I've taken the liberty of speeding things up a bit."

You made sure to keep quiet, not sure where this was going.

The orb bounced over towards your face as it flashed from clear to white light faster than before. A panel shimmered into existence before your eyes in the same style as those you encountered before. This time however, you peered at the orb, floating above the text, hovering over what seemed to be the interactive portions, waiting as if you were the one who was suppose to make the decision.

**Help Guide**

All quest relevant Information is accessed in the **Help Guide** option. Simply mentally repeating the word 'pause' twice to freeze your progress and doing the same with the word 'help' will allow you access.

**Access Help Guide Menu?**

**Yes/No**

Curious, yet still confused, you pushed the orb over to the '**Yes**' option and watched as it lit up, your selection was confirmed. Expecting some kind of manual to browse through, you were shocked and disturbed by the appearance of a list of random events that seemed to encompass the major actions of your life.

And, it showed up as some kind of game. You were now some higher being's plaything? You looked at the orb suspiciously before giving out a sigh. You would have to keep calm and bear with this until you knew more. In the end, you couldn't keep your composure as you peered down at the list.

* * *

**Major Gamer Point Achievements**

_**Vast reiatsu control-5,000**_

_**Powerful Shikai-10,000**_

_**Eye for talent-10,000**_

_**Stronger than a Captain-15,000**_

_**Emperor of Hollows-20,000**_

_**Civilized Hollows-75,000**_

_**Leader among Souls-50,000 **_

_**For the greater Good-50,000 **_

_**Master of Intrigue/Manipulation-50,000**_

_**Genius-75,000**_

_**Magnificent Bastard-75,000**_

_**Accidental Immortal-100,000**_

**Major Gamer Point Deficits**

_**Prince of Cannon fodder-60,000**_

_**Hollow Civilization Killer-75,000**_

_**Sereitei Crasher-10,000**_

_**Unmastered Zanpakto-10,000**_

_**Retarded team Work-5,000**_

_**Central 46 Killer-15,000 **_

_**Never met a True Vastro Lord-20,000**_

_**King of Backstabbers-50,000**_

_**Fake Ascension-50,000**_

_**Ridiculously Hax-50,000**_

_**Death by Boy Scout-75,000**_

_**Countered by Kisuke Urahara-75,000**_

_**Never Discovered True Enemy-100,000**_

**Gamer Point****:-60,000**

**Gamer Score****: **_**Evil Puppet Master**_

* * *

_Your life and death brought the Seiretei to all time lows and highs. The deep betrayal you inflicted on your people weakened the seireitei at first, but it also unintentionally strengthened them like never before, challenging the shinigami realm to never again relax into complacency._

_After your death,their fanaticism in establishing hegemony over all potential threats inside and outside their influence reached heights never before possible. Any discussions involving dissenting opinions were made moot thanks to your destruction of the central 46. There was no competent opposition to put up much resistance to shinigami tyranny in any realm._

_The boy who struck you down passed away as a withered old man and cynical shinigami official, jaded by the oppression and needless death his friends and loved ones committed under the banner of purifying justice._

_Their targets, the barbarian hollows and every other being not a shiniami, fell not with a bang, but with a whimper, much too weak to stand up to such force. Their realms were annexed or partitioned, becoming the playgrounds of powerful families, well versed in privilege and nepotism._

_When the dust cleared after the eventual implosion of this over stretched system, that thing you tried so desperately to oppose also fell, except it was to the enemy you never saw coming. It took the mantle of the one you called an abomination and stood triumphant. You were the key to its' eternal domination; a distraction, the ultimate sacrificial lamb._

_What the man you hated the most and admired above all others did during all of this chaos was left a mystery to many, no one knew Kisuke Urahara's whereabouts after the shinigami ran rampant. _

_But, maybe your association with the man will be different this time around?_

* * *

The look on your face screamed shock and dejection. Coming to your aid, the orb chimed in to explain just what kind of sick joke this list was.

"This, young Sosuke, is the result of the games and manipulation you committed in the self inflicted fantasy you ensnared yourself in."

You quickly picked up on the lie the orb had crafted, knowing that you had never once come across any of the scenarios you had just read-until the orb cut off your rebuttal.

"No, you've done none of these things. You experienced them, yes, but were they truly real? No. Now, if you think back to 10 years ago, the time before you joined the militia, when you could barely feed yourself after awakening your hunger in this world, you'll understand. It all started after that."

You took in what the orb said very reluctantly, still put off with this negative assessment of your life. This thing was implying you were some kind of ignorant pawn who failed with whatever they were planning. Besides, you were very certain you weren't dumb enough to oppose the Sereitei. Still, curiosity got the best of you, so you followed the advice of the voice , trying to recall back one of the most mysterious events in your afterlife.

The image came to you gradually, the day you had discovered something within you had shifted and feeding yourself became paramount. It had been an amazing feeling at first, using that mysterious energy according to your will or the prospect of no longer peddling and begging throughout the districts.

Humor laced through your mind, hindsight telling you that those were the days when your life as a street rat grew harder, grittier and somehow fuller. Making a small amount of money on the endless odd jobs you performed gave you access to money, but the money saved was meager, so you survived off of the refuse the lower, richer districts discarded.

On some days you just mechanically went through the motions, on others it was a surreal mix of joy and despair.

Months flew by as you resorted to scavenging to keep yourself fed. Besides that, working odd jobs and saving up money to buy your way into the much more lucrative hollow hunting bands was your best bet. Eventually you were able to purchase the necessary gear for joining the logistics group; a segment of the hunting bands dedicated to supplying the food, resting, waste equipment for the hunters.

Around two months into your job carrying bed supplies, you remember suddenly collapsing in one of the muddy roads of the 80th district, and waking up in the home of an old woman. She hadn't done this out of the kindness of her heart of course; the money on your person was more than enough for her to nurse you out of your 10 day coma. Kicking you out after your recovery was uncalled for, but there was no such thing as altruism in these parts, none that you had seen.

Now that you thought about it, your control over your spiritual power grew in leaps and bounds in the days after you awoke. The level of intuition you developed handling your reiryoku was comparable to catching up with an old friend. Gratitude was the first thing that came to mind, whether it was the coma or the old woman, if your strengthened soul was a result.

Was this what the orb wanted you to ponder about? Waiting for a response, you turned your gaze upon the orb.

"The coma? Is that what you wanted me to think about? I admit I didn't look too deeply into it, but it didn't seem too serious, I've been fine ever since." You said, although your confidence was rattled.

The orb flashed once, as if it acknowledged your statement and responded in turn.

"Neither your coma or recovery were normal by any means. I should know. My existence was born from that incident. "

You waited for the orb to continue, interested in where it was headed with this revelation. Another flash from the orb indicated it was ready to proceed, this time with a subdued, yet slightly wondrous tone.

"That day you fell into that coma, you had been walking down a random, dirt road with your terrible sandals, like you would on any other day. Maybe if you'd stepped to the right or the left, maybe if you had had a smaller hole in your sandal or had discovered your reiryoku later, it wouldn't have happened. The fact is, you did step on something you shouldn't have. That thing just so happened to be from a higher plane than us, something also unavoidable.

You shouldn't have woken up from that, even if it was just from touching a small, ant-sized, fragment of skin. Higher beings can barely have their pets around normal souls, but you survived by a fluke. You didn't leave without a scratch, but still, you survived."

You felt a little light headed at the revelation, but made sure to stay silent as the voice within the orb went on.

"Contact with that small fragment sent your awareness into the deepest corners of your mind. Imagination, facts, lies, memories, reiryoku, and divine essence combined into an extremely potent fantasy, one which condensed 300 years of living into a time span of 10 days. That bloody path you took in that dreamscape of yours' is mostly your doing, but the people and the places couldn't have just been fiction. Their lives were too real to be a total concoction. So, I need your help to find out the origin of those thoughts. Do you understand now? "

You were in state of disbelief. What the orb had told you and what you had read were mind-blowing. Although, it'd be dishonest of you to claim any of this as falsehood now that you were starting to also recall images and faces you were sure you had never seen before. That didn't mean your questions were answered though.

"I understand that I came into contact with some kind of fragment of a higher being and experienced a dream that felt like a hundreds of years of time. What I still don't understand is what does all of this-_waving his hand in a semi-circle, pointing out the current environment_-have to do with these points, labels and words?"

Your frustration had taken hold once again. Was this orb responsible for this or was this unintentionally your fault too?

You rubbed your temples and closed your eyes, trying to assuage an emerging headache, only to hear the voice of the orb as it replied.

"As I've said before, I'll need your help to find out the origin of those memories. All that you see around you is nothing more than an aid for you to use however you see fit towards that goal. I'll admit that I may have tweaked things to make this interface possible, but none of this would have been possible if you weren't subconsciously predisposed to it…"

"Fine...I get it. But what do I do now?" you huffed, still frustrated, yet intrigued at the same time.

"Continue doing what you've been doing. Just know that I will be present to help guide you through this. I'll elaborate further if you need me to, but all I ask is that you cooperate with me for benefit of both of us."The orb said.

The orb went on further, this time only in a more delicate tone.

"Don't make your decision now. I want you think about it first and without feeling like you were pressured into anything. If you want to leave, simply follow me over towards the side quest panel, I'll be hovering over the '**Yes**' option."

You kept your silence your silence wondering who this entity was and what it wanted before stopping before your body .Your hand reached out pushed the orb onto the '**Yes**' before a timer appeared overhead, glowing with numbers decreasing from 100.

You looked to orb for an explanation.

"It's a countdown to the moment you bond with your body and time starts again."

"Oh." You lamely said. You wondered what else you should talk about until the countdown ended, only to be struck by the most obvious idea.

"What's your name?" You asked.

The orb pulsed with light and moved away from the side quest panel before answering.

"You can call me Hogyoku, for now."

"Hm, I think I remember that name…" You thought out loud in concentration.

"That's good; you should be remembering the events of the dream more clearly from now on." It said, its' tone much more upbeat than before.

"Well, that's really more convenient for us" You said, humor apparent in your voice.

"Ah, so you've agreed to a partnership then?"It said, gently bouncing in the air as if it was pleased with your answer.

"Yes. Yes, I've decided to see this thing out and it can't be too detrimental to your health to follow an entity born partly from your existence, can it?" You said, suddenly feeling stupid for agreeing so soon.

"No, it can't. And I'm glad you acknowledge that we share the same existence. I won't do anything to hurt you. Besides-ha ha, I could see in your mind that you were going to agree. I wasn't going to force your decision with pre-knowledge though, that would've been very indecent. " It said, with a little too much glee for your taste.

You spluttered in reply.

"Wh-wha ?!" You had nearly forgotten that the Hogyoku had that ability. Frowning over your embarrassment you ready yourself for reality to resume.

"Any way," You said, trying to suppress your blush. "It's nice to meet you, Hogyoku."You said, an easy going smile lightning up your face.

The Hogyoku flashed on and off, before it stopped bouncing.

"Meh. I feel like I've known you for years. Maybe you'll get more likable as we progress." Hogyoku snickered; most likely trying to tease you. It then plopped down on your head, rolling around.

You gave a half-hearted, yet amused smile in response to its' silly antics before turning your full attention to the nearly completed countdown.

Somehow you knew that this was the beginning of something as equally adventuress as it was dangerous. You knew there was more to the story than what the Hoguku was telling you , but you'd let it rest for now. Following its' advice hadn't hurt you yet and you were both of the same mindset. You were both in agreement about continuing the path you were already on, which was to rescue the villagers. The only thing bothering you was that you wondered what sort of specific role the shinigami had in mind for you on this mission.

You hoped it wouldn't be too risky.

You hoped and prayed even harder as the last second came. You found yourself staring once more into the eyes of the waiting captain as the sky regained its' natural hue and the sounds of your shuffling comrades resumed.

"Yes, I'll do it." You eagerly told her.

"Okay," She said, failing to visibly hide her pleased smile at your answer. "Just follow me."

As you walked beside her,you couldn't stop yourself from wondering just how you were going to pull off this mission.

"I'm still here to help you" said Hogyoku, somehow audible to your ears only, especially with the shinigami not reacting at all.

With your mental support present, you walked behind the officer, much more assured about your competency in facing this unknown. You'd find those villagers, and make sure they all came back safe and sound under your watch.

With a friend like Hogyoku present at your side, who would dare try botch that up?

* * *

A loud sneeze escaped from you as waited patiently for the cannon fodder to proceed back into the now completely flameless village.

It wouldn't be long now.

Soon, you'd have your claws into the real prize.

You just had to wait a little longer.

Just a little longer...

* * *

Sorry this update took so long everybody. Had something ready for Wednesday, but i scraped it and came up with this instead.I want get this arc done with on the next update, so I condensed and tweaked this update into 3 chapters into one. Hope you like it and please review. Id love some more feedback.

Enjoy.


	6. Chapter 6: End Tutorial

_Disclaimer_: I wish I owned Bleach, but I don't. The owner is Tite Kubo.

* * *

"So," you said, scratching the dirt with your claws, "Why aren't you three eating anything? You could take a little bite here and there, I'm sure the others won't mind, there's plenty to go around."

Looking over at the remaining identical, tiger hollows in front of you, each of them looking a lot more competent than those you had just sent out to get trampled, you noticed that although they had heard every word you said, not a single one moved to take your suggestion. Instead they all seemed to be staring at you to take the lead and go in first. You had a feeling they'd definitely be more useful than the throwaways seeking to eat that shinigami. You prompted them once more just to make sure you weren't mistaken.

"Don't mind me; I get a little jittery when I notice shinigami, but nothing to worry your little heads about. Go on, have fun and dine on the food." This time, you tilted your head over to some of the closest and largest knocked out members of the village, wondering if they would interpret it as a gesture of good will.

You were slightly taken aback, yet pleased at the response you received from what seemed to be the voice of this little group.

"You know, I could ask you the same question. Why aren't you eating either?" said one of them. It was covered in black and white stripes from head to toe, donning a mask with two oversized fangs, just like the other two it was standing apart from. What was also apparent was that it was female, they all were.

Besides their very conspicuous physical traits, you were most impressed with the little spit-fire that had the nerve to address you that way. She must have known you could have ripped her throat out, right? Looking over at the leader's sisters, who happened to immediately look away after you made eye-contact, you found that they had none of her bravery. You really did love such spirited young hollows, but you still had to set an example; spoil them and they'd walk all over you.

You growled a bit, just to let her know who was in charge here and watched as some of the bravado she had earlier bled away. You then replied to her question after sensing her submission by vaguely letting them all in on what you were planning.

"We'll all be well fed after things fall through on our strike team's end. We'll just have to wait a little until they soften the shinigami up for us. Extend your senses and you'll know what I'm talking about."

The self-proclaimed leader did as she was told, concentrating on what felt like several pressures brushing against her brain, and simultaneously trying to block out the distracting smells and sounds around her. Watching her intently, you silently posed your test. Out of the many pressures, who was the most dangerous?

Her head, previously lowered in concentration, slowly ascended with a faced wrapped in confusion before settling into a calm, resigned expression. Her sisters, who had followed her lead, also raised their heads, but with faces all but admitting that they failed to comprehend what they had sensed. You found them looking at you, the source of their attention, with unasked questions. You returned your attention back to the leader of the pack once more, ready to see what she had gathered from her analysis.

"The shinigami's pressure, the pattern… it's …sweet? The others… they have a bite about them." She informs you, her voice caught between a mix of statement and question waiting to be confirmed.

You nod in the affirmative and prompt her to continue.

"Before, it was dropping steadily, but now it's gradually pulsing back up. And the other one, the scout in the village, it hasn't dropped either. It's like there wasn't even a fight earlier."

You smile as you acknowledge the astute observation. A casual look towards the speaker's increasingly suspicious siblings cements your decision to spill the beans before they hurt themselves trying to keep up with your train of thought.

"That's right. As we speak, the shinigami's reiatsu is gently bouncing about at a very controlled and steady pace. In fact, that kind of control coming from someone who came from a battle, let alone one of the strongest hollows among us- even if he's a new born- makes me wonder quite a bit. Yes, that level of precise reiatsu control tells me our enemy is neither as harmed nor as spiritually weak as we first assumed. Whoever this shinigami is, they are lying in wait inside that village, rhythmically sending out a pulse of that sweet, sweet reiatsu of theirs, inviting us in with bait: the scout, " you told them, once again scratching your nails into the dirt slowly.

"You mean-"yelled your new favorite hollow.

"Let's see here…" you said through a lopsided smile, ignoring her interruption. Muscles tensed and reiryoku rushed as the triplets bared witness to the reiatsu of a hollow with a few centuries worth of experience under its belt.

"Hm, must surely be magnetic to those fools," murmuring more to yourself than your audience, while slowly mimicking the parlor trick the shinigami was using on the hollows you sent out and trying it out on the identical hollows in front of you.

"You're talking about the others, aren't you? Did you let them go knowing all this?" the mouthy one asked, shaking her head to get rid of the glazed look in her eye and slight breathlessness induced by your shinigami imitation.

"Heh," you huffed, forgetting that these were still innocent pups when compared to the more seasoned warriors-companionship among hollows was a tricky business that you'd have to break them off of; these young ones had too much potential to waste on that. It was very apparent that while the other two weren't as doubtful and apprehensive as their self-nominated leader, they were genuinely curious to know your reasons-if they could shake off your little trick long enough to ask.

You decided that to make things easier after noting that even these three-intelligent as they were, had some trouble breaking out of this simple imitation of the enemy's hollow baiting technique. Lightening up on the reiatsu being emitted, you made sure to kindly inform them of what their former comrades were in for.

"They are not your permanent allies. They aren't going to share whatever they get their hands on in the village. And, they most certainly wish they didn't have to follow my plans or helpful advice. No, we've gotten rid of excess weight and we're all the better for it," you said, making sure to let them know how convinced you were that this was no opinion, but a simple fact.

Their faces held some disbelief, but there was something forming up there in their heads…

"You saw them! It was like trying to talk to animals; that kind of eagerness to rush off into the unknown with a half-cocked plan was pure idiocy– you know it! They were ready to race each other for that shingami , and who knows, maybe they would have gotten themselves and each other killed if I wasn't here,"

"B-But what if things work out for the best? I mean, what if they manage to take out the shinigami, wouldn't that make, you know, everything okay?" said the sister that was farthest from you.

"Well," you turned your head towards the silly hollow who questioned you, shaking your head at the naivety of her question, "There's only one problem with that. Who's the one that gets the first bite? Is it the one who actually inflicted the kill or the one who provided the damage to make that killing blow possible? We don't have to speculate much longer though; can't you feel it? Some of our friends have stopped moving around."

"And we're going to help them?" said the sister who was the last to her open her mouth.

"There not dead yet, we can take a stroll and checkup on them, right?" You teased.

Quiet mumbling filled the air as the sisters looked at each other to discuss if they would also move into the village. Ignoring them all together, you decided to stalk away and leave the triplets to their own devices; you'd check the village out for yourself. They could easily catch up after deciding among themselves if they would tag along in order to bail out the others. Surprisingly, despite the misgivings you assumed they had, it seemed that whatever their consensus was must have been quickly reached, especially with suddenness of the sisters approach from behind you.

It was no bother at all. The greater the company, the more fun would be had, and this clever shinigami had definitely caught your attention. And so, proceeding forward with as much enthusiasm as you could muster for this little quest, whether it was retrieving the idiots who got caught, the triplets who were following from behind at a sedate pace, or engaging your kind's sworn enemy, it felt as if a big treat was now within reach.

What you had in store all but assured it.

* * *

Only the fastest of feet within the depths of Rukongai could allow you to perform half of the maneuvers displayed by your leader, the other half were far too polished and agile to have originated anywhere near those places. You were mesmerized by the dodging, the swift parrying, and the fact that no matter how hard the hollows tried their best not to be led, four of the seven hollows were busy trying to press her with savage swipes or the occasional projectiles she probably intentionally egged on. You guessed that this would normally have been a doubled-edge sword, one that would have led to the exhaustion of the one being pursued. By the crisp footwork and lack of sluggishness in her form, tiring definitely was not a problem for shinigami.

Stationed between the spaces of two mildly burnt houses with three of your comrades, some of who happened to be in awe at the display of acrobatics the shinigami employed to string her pursuers along in a circle, you waited patiently for the officer to signal you into action. Quickly growing bored of watching the show in silence, a look to your left and right brought you face to face with your comrades.

An average looking, black haired, yet competent girl stood in front of you, whispering to a sharp-eyed, brown haired, stocky man, who looked like he was in his early-thirties. The last person present among the group held themselves somewhat aloof from the others. From what you could see, whoever they were, they were tall, covered from head to toe in a dark-blue robe worn underneath their armor and they stood behind all of you, eyes closed to the world. It seemed the best place to strike up a conversation would be with the other two in front of you.

They seemed like they would be much more pleasant than what you expected from the regular high district natives would be like. Turning your back to the loner, you posed an open question that had been bothering you for some time to the two in front of you.

"Do you feel that pulse coming off of her? It's getting faster."

The two, who were having a mostly monosyllabic conversation, paused to look at you in confusion, right before the loud voice of you commanding officer was heard.

"Sai!"

Having lost sight of the shinigami, several loud thuds were the only sign that the trick she had employed on the hollows had come to an end, probably on her terms. Glancing into the curious eyes of the two members beside you, you all silently signal to each other that a small peak around the corner was good idea.

A hand on your shoulder from behind and a raspy, muffled voice put an immediate halt to that idea.

"She told us to remain hidden."

It seemed that the anti-social member of the group had something to say after all, but why would he stop a momentary check up on the all the action? Looking upon the long, calloused fingers holding onto you, turned back to give a reply, the other two watching at this curious development. Before you could even get in a word edgewise, the same sharp voice of your leader pierced through the much quieter village again.

"Column red, column blue, come on out, column three take flight!"

Hearing sounds of movement immediately after those commands; you flushed with embarrassment as you slowly turned towards the unexpected voice of reason. You offered an awkward smile and a small nod in thanks for the warning of caution; the discard of a direct order from a commanding officer being something you wished to avoid at all cost. The small nod you received in turn relieved some of your guilt, not to mention the sheepish smiles of your willing accomplishes, supporting you and apologizing to the loner at the same time.

"Maybe we should head out now?" said the brown haired man, still sporting that modest expression he used on the hooded member of your group.

The loner nodded in response once again, probably deeming it unnecessary to voice an agreement. The mysterious team member leaned back slightly to make way for the rest of you to take the lead. Taking this as an opportune opening, you took the moment to introduce yourself to the others.

"The name's Sosuke,"

Picking up on your prompt, the other three stated their names in succession as they marched out to the back of the village, making sure to keep to the shadows of the village's damaged houses.

The brown haired man was the first member to speak up .

" I'm Kirito."

His acquaintance from earlier was the next to go, stating her name with good cheer not regularly found in the Rukongai. With a smile she said her name was. It was infectious, however she was doing it, that cheer was rubbing off and you didn't mind.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Mai!"

The last member of your group bit out a quick reply, saying 'Rei', still not in the mood to say more than needed.

With the pleasantries out of the way, the group descended into silence, but you couldn't help but feel that something important had just happened. You weren't sure what it was, but the mental nod that Hogyoku gave you confirmed it.

Whoever they were, the members of this little group seemed to be promising. And, you'd make sure to be at their side to see how this would become clear.

* * *

Truly, they were a disappointment.

Almost all of them were taken out.

The only two who were holding their own were evading fighting all together, which, although annoying, you supposed provided as good of a distraction as you could get. While the two leftovers had their hands full dealing with the foot soldiers you'd seen swarm out like rats, you directed the triplets to another task. They would retrieve those immobilized by the enemy and you would stall the shinigami.

To your amusement, you approached closer to the source of your attention; your eyes picked out a competent looking female shinigami, her stance pulled tight and eager, ready for combat at moment's notice.

Shame on the one who who'd deny such a polite request, you would have to show her your appreciation.

Dashing in a zigzag pattern and bouncing off of the damaged walls of homes that once hummed with a tempered, quiet joy only rural life could produce, you landed before the shinigami, making sure to land a few meters from her while kicking up staggering amount of dust.

Having made a signal to the triplets up ahead to continue on with the rescue, your eyes were solely focused on your enemy.

That didn't stop her from trying to interfere with the triplets, who happened to be trotting lightly on the village roofs. You made sure to block her attempt at shooting them down with a strange ball of fire she conjured by taking another vicious swipe at the ground to obscure her line of sight. The large dust cloud created worked wonders with the dense fog.

Thank kami for these dirt roads.

You made sure to address your enemy and dissuade any further attempts of squashing your subordinates.

"Let's keep this dance between ourselves. Your soldiers seem to be holding up quite fine on their own, so let's leave them be."

The shinigami only raised her right eyebrow at your statement before returning with a quip.

"I take it you're the brains of this operation?"

"You could say that," You returned, guessing that you knew where she was going with that line of thought.

"So, if I take out the head, the body will fall, huh? It's not like that bunch over there were too bright to begin with, you know?" She said while pointing to the still, yet alive forms of the team you sent out earlier.

"Heh," you laughed out loud, "You're welcome to try, young lady."

You smiled, before charging her in the somewhat different pattern and once again used the dirt road to your advantage. Rushing away from the haze you created, the shinigami employed series of quick foot movements that propelled her into the sky.

You sensed it before you saw it. Descending from up above with her sword, which was vibrating within her hands thanks to the green reiatsu being channeled through it, the shinigami was preparing to cut you in two.

You smiled as you rushed forward to counter her strike, pumping as much energy as you could into the tips of your claws.

Maybe this would be more amusing than you first assumed.

The thought stuck with you for the rest of the battle as both you and your enemy met in a collision of green and dark red light that illuminated middle of the village and left deep gouges along the ground.

You hummed quietly as you picked yourself backup to face-off against the shinigami once more.

This would definitely be entertaining.

Paranoia had always been your friend and surviving in the places you frequented had made sure it was your primary one too.

So it was very reasonable to you to indulge in the dread you felt at the ease with which your mission had been completed. The relief you had felt after finding more than 100 unharmed villagers gave way to a niggling sense of doubt after coming to terms with the lack of obstacles impeding you and your team from being able to revive everyone. Your doubt only grew into anxiety as your comrades tried to settle the villagers down to keep them quiet enough to avoid being detected by any straggling hollows within the area. After an hour had gone by, you were sure that your team's attempts at calming the villagers down were successful. This all but confirmed in your mind that something bad would soon happen.

As comforting as ending the mission was, it was not the pacification of the village that caused your paranoia to give birth to dread, no, it was the new commotion that you sensed coming from the village.

The steadily approaching dust cloud was the tip-off that your intuition was correct, but the fact that you right about things working out too well kept you grounded. Panic soon melted away as you noticed that the out of place dust cloud closing in on the both your comrades and villagers was trailing behind a rather slim, bird-like hollow. It was charging in fast, but from the looks of it, some kind of injury was interfering with its stride. Taking the cautious route, you called out to your teammates for assistance, while you readied your shield and spear. Implicitly, you know they wouldn't reach you in time to back you up and defend the others, so your legs had moved on their own and carried you forward to face the danger alone and hope they could help reinforce your position somehow.

The sudden, violent jerk in your out stretched spear arm dashed those hopes.

A sensation of red-hot pain flashed across your chest and abdomen prior to your curious meeting with the earth beneath your feet. The pooling blood beneath you, the shouts, yells and screams deepened your bewilderment before you saw darkness.

What happened after that was a blur, but you were sure of one thing; you'd made a difference, somehow.

You were damn sure of it.


	7. Chapter 7: Resolution part 1

_Disclaimer_: I wish I owned Bleach, but I don't. The owner is Tite Kubo.

* * *

When you came to, the faces of Kirito, Rei, Mai, and the shinigami who led you all, were standing at the bed post, your left, and right sides.

Bedpost?

Looking around with your face full of confusion, you took in the clean and cool colors that covered the room you had woken up in: most likely in a hospital. There was nothing decorating the room except for a desk to the side, a divided curtain pulled apart to keep patients visible, a shoddy bathroom and a vase full of unfamiliar flowers. The dull colors or lack of chairs for visitors didn't annoy you as much you thought nor did the open blinds,that somehow let in blinding levels of light, ruin your mood. It was all much nicer to you, a boy by soul standards with no relations or money, than the nearly all the rooms you had ever managed to be in or come across. The fact that a street rat like yourself even received attention, even if was most likely because of a combination of your near martyrdom and the benevolence of your commanding officer.

As impressed as you were with the room, you peered back at the faces of the people who had seen you at your best and worst. As you groggily looked from your team members to your leader, an amused sounding voice floated out within the small room.

"You alright there buddy?" asked Kirito, whose child-like innocence had caused him to over look proper protocol. The small reprimand that the leader gave him with her eyes and a small frown caused him to backpedal quickly and apologize profusely. The startled shinigami couldn't help but smile at the man's antics and you swore you could almost see the cogs turning in her head as she took on a more casual demeanor. To your eyes, it looked like she had just relented over trying to kick a puppy-something you'd come across every now and then in the higher numbered districts.

She nodded her head at Kirito to continue and adorned a much more relaxed posture than earlier.

Regaining his composure, Kirito scratched his head with that same sheepish expression you'd seen when all four of you were in Aizen village.

'_Where am I anyway?'_ You thought, before Kirito spoke to you once again.

"You're in the 60th district's hospital, I carried you myself," he said with pride.

"How long have I been out?" you said, mostly recovered from your deep sleep.

"Um, you've been asleep for four days, we came by every day to check up on you," said Mai, giving you subdued, yet gracious smile.

"Oh," you said, not truly surprised at the revelation.

"Yes, that hollow did less damage to you than we thought. Still, you were lucky to have come out of that without any permanent damage. Anyhow, I'd like to apologize for letting that damn thing get away from me. He was a smart one, no doubts about it," said the shinigami, her voice taking on more contemplative tone.

She looked up suddenly and asked a question that slightly caught you off balance, making sure to give you an easy going smile while doing so.

"That was very smart of you though, to put your body on the line like that and try to veer the hollow off of its charge. I don't think anyone could have done any better had they been in your position. I have to wonder though, were the others indisposed at the time or were you sure you could handle it yourself?"

Living in the Rukongai made any and everybody proficient in the art of sabotage, lies and scheming to a certain extent. A few more words more than needed to answer a seemingly innocent like this could be used for kami know's what,especially when shinigami were involved. Not a single soul was ignorant of the rumored cut throat politics they tried on each other and you wanted absolutely no part in that, not if this was going where you thought it was...

Immediately, you knew you had to come to the defense of your teammates while simultaneously answering why you were the only who tried to intercept the beast as concise and brief as you could. Besides what you were about to tell her was the truth, luckily for you.

"The others were trying to restrain some of the villagers after we revived them. A lot of them were in a panic after they regained consciousness. Some of them had lost family members before they'd been marched out of the village.I knew the others had their hands full trying to stop a few of the villagers from drawing more attention to everyone," you answered making sure to keep your report as professional as possible, even with non-existent experience you had with these matters.

You took a small breath before continuing.

"When I saw what was coming for us, I called out to the others, but I knew I was the only one who could get to it in time. I had to take a gamble and try to distract it or injure it if possible. I'm just glad no one else got hurt."

You lowered your head and rubbed your temples, trying to garner sympathy while simultaneously driving home the point that you were still recovering from an almost fatal encounter. Hopefully she'd take the hint.

"Hm, I see," she chimed in, sounding satisfied, "Well, that's good enough for me," she said, turning on her heel and walking towards the exit. "You know, I probably would've done the same thing if I was in your shoes. Anyway, keep up the good work kid. I'll leave you three to fill him in."

You stared at her back as she went through the door. You hadn't expected her to leave so abruptly after your report; you weren't complaining about it though. Trying to catch someone in a verbal trap,especially a person who also almost died, was something you'd never contemplated before, much less been on the receiving end of, it was…vicious. It was enjoyable to see her beat a hollow into submission, but you had never given a thought as to how you would fare under her predatory gaze. Staying on that women's good side was something you'd make sure to keep in mind though.

Kirito, who also stared at the back of the departing shinigami, was the one to voice your thoughts on the matter, "She sure can be scary…"

"You make it so easy for her dummy." Said Mei, cheeks puffed out in amusement.

He smiled as he took the gentle ribbing, most likely more familiar with her than you had first assumed, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll work on it later. Anyway, she's right you know, you really did do great out there," he said, turning to look at you.

He scratched his head before he continued further, "We were coming to help, but that thing was so fast. It was on you in an instant, we barely caught up to you before it smacked you into the air," he said.

Mai spoke up once again, "We," she looked towards Rei, who nodded in support,"thought it was best to give the able bodied among the villagers our arrows after you called out to us, you know, as a backup in case we weren't able to push it back. We set off to help you as soon as we could, but I don't know, it came out of nowhere…"

Looking at his companion's furrowed eyebrows and sudden loss of words, Kirito picked up where she left off, "What she means is that the hollow came out of some hole right before it hit you," he said, taking in your confused expression he added more, "That's not the weird part though. After that hit it gave you, we thought you were done for."

You gulped at the revelation, shocked at just how close you came to being damned.

"Thing is, it just started dabbing at the blood you left on the ground. It pulled that same disappearing trick when the three of us were upon it and appeared on top of you. We thought it was gonna eat you right there, but it just started licking and smearing your blood all over itself, or as much as it could get to," he told you, providing you with an image that must have looked more gruesome than it sounded.

You yourself were troubled by this news, but not enough to lose track of where he was headed with the last part of his statement.

"What do you mean?"

"She, the militia commander, came through and chased it away, it left through that hole again and never came back!" he said, pleased at having been a witness.

Mai smacked him in the shoulder, which to you, looked like he may have embellished what he just told you.

"The hollow left as soon as it was done doing that creepy stuff to you. The commander just patched you up as soon as she got to you. She had us go back to guarding the villagers while she healed you," Mai corrected.

"To be honest, it all happened quickly, but I thought she saw some of what happened, she asked us something similar, wonder why she's so curious?"

An unexpected voice answered her question.

"Politics." said the muffled, raspy voice of Rei.

Kirito, whose face was caught in a comically exaggerated state of confusion after Rei's sparse reply, lighted up confidently as he felt that he grasped what eluded rest of you.

"She needs to make sure that what she wants to put in her report about what happened is consistent with what everyone saw, yet makes sure she comes off in a good light. What you had to say about the hollow can either make her sound like an imbecile or resourceful leader who encountered an 'old one', am I right Rei?"

Rei nodded twice in response, which ended up causing Kirito to be a little too pleased with himself in your opinion.

"So she's trying to make herself sound better by using us as witnesses, interesting," Mai said, sounding impressed more than annoyed at the manipulation used against her.

Although being a puppet was not one of your goals, whether it was undue suspicion on Rei's part or your lack of shrewdness, power plays had always had an appeal to you from your early life. Being much more open to conversations involving such topics, you shifted your body to face Rei and inquire further.

The shooting pain in chest and the yelp that escaped your throat stopped you in your tracks.

"You should get your rest, we'll come back tomorrow, the healers said you should be better in a few days, so relax." said Mai.

You attempted to protest, but Rei's hand came upon your shoulder and your protest died on the tip of your tongue. Maybe you weren't as healed as you thought? Your comrades certainly thoughts so as they all proceeded towards the door.

Kirito gave you hearty goodbye by slapping your back until Mai came and pushed him away. She in turn gave you a quiet wave and mouthed a 'see you tomorrow'. Rei walked behind the both of them and gave you a small nod as she walked over to the exit. A few warm waves goodbye met you as lowered your head back into your pillow to rest, watching the backs of your departing comrades. You were grateful that they came here to see you; it was irrelevant that some of you were recently strangers.

This only solidified your high opinion of them and Hogyoku, who happened to giving a low hum, could only concur at that line of thought, most likely growing as fond of them as you were. Using the silence you had been given, you gave the Hogyoku the equivalent of a mental poke. A screen appearing before you face was the only response you got. Peering down at the text, an expression you had felt often in your early childhood slowly blossomed on your face: childish greed.

You barely heard the voice of the Hogyoku as it observed your wildly roaming eyes and the dozens of possibilities flashing through your mind. You did manage to let out a careless acknowledgement to it's next reply to you as you tried to figure out what you could do with what it had given you.

"Here's your present." Said Hogyoku, who you felt was smiling at your antics.

And with that time flew by as you delved deeper and deeper into the mystery you had gotten yourself into. Slowly gazing over the text, you had a strong feeling that you'd be seeing this screen more often from now on.

* * *

Sorry for the delay. Not sure about the rest of you, but we got hit with a strong burst of snow up in upstate New York. The internet's connection's been a little wonky since then too. Anyway, the next chapter's gonna go heavily into the game aspect of the fic(finally) so look out. And, if you noticed, there's going to be a lot more political intrigue popping up in this universe than canon, but you'll see in a few chapters. Until then, enjoy and review.


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